Mama asks the question: How can a civilization whose past was dominated by a torrid, sexy, intelligent, wild and crazy queen called—guess who: CLEOPATRA—now crack down on one of Egypt’s most appealing traditions—BELLY DANCING?
Okay, call it ‘oriental dancing’, but whatever you call it, it’s an art and not every woman in the world can master it. But even so, who among us kitties has not wanted to get up and boogie to eastern music with that wild beat and finger cymbals tinkling and tambourines tambourining. Even doing one’s own version of one of the world’s oldest dances is spirit-lifting, spirit-freeing, or just plain lots of FUN!
The government in Egypt says when and where you can belly dance. You have to get a PERMIT to DANCE? No wonder Cairo was in upheaval this year. I’d riot too if some government official, scared out of his precious little boots that I was going to stir up the blood of everyone around me—men, women, kitties and children—sent the dance police to stop my gyrations.
When are male anthros going to realize that a belly dancer cannot possibly start a war but could certainly help avoid one? Egyptian women are permitted to dance at home, in the privacy of their boudoirs, for their husbands—hey, wait a minute! What about dancing for their boy or girl friends? What about dancing for the hell of it? What about dancing for their KITTIES? I wouldn’t be surprised if the government sent out peeping toms to peer into windows just to make sure their dance programs were on the up and up.
FEAR. FEAR. FEAR. Mama reads me too many articles from the NYT about the suppession of women. Along with Cairo’s clamping down on dancers, young women in Pakistan are too often forced to marry at puberty because the family’s money goes toward education for sons! And multiple early pregnacies have been shown to endanger their young lives.
With due respect to those trying to change this pattern, a program was set up in two rural areas of Pakistan to train female teachers in communication skills to educate young women students about sex and their rights, and the students in turn were taught bargaining techniques to persuade their families that they contribute as much as the sons to family structure and productivity.
Well, this is a start. And nothing ever happens without putting out a paw, and then the other one…
But if these male anthros themselves would simply realize that we females are assets in their lives, complementing their own strenghths (and weaknesses) and that females on a level playing field can only strengthen the foundations on which productive civilizations are built!
Make that ‘level belly-dancing field’.
Even I do a little tummy dancing in the morning and there’s no suspicious, woman-fearing male anthro in THIS house, you can bet your belly button!
Hey, would YOU be afraid of this tummy?
Uh, oh, that’s my music starting up…time to shimmy.
Hmm…I think the black one’s best for me…
Loulou, I am concerned that your tummy would be censored if you were in Egypt. It’s so snuggle-able.
Seriously though, in some ways humans are still in the dark ages regarding how they treat each other. There’s a poor young woman in Sudan, right now, facing death, simply because she rejected one religion and married someone of a different faith.
Sigh
Luff Mungo
That makes me literally ILL. And how about the stoning of young women who are often forced into sex and then ‘discovered’ doing something against their religion.
In my view, religion is one of the most dangerous organized way of keeping people in line than almost anything on earth. Poor little girl…I hope human rights groups save her.
Hey, Loulou, we can’t wait to see you dressed up and doing a belly dance. Will your mom be joining you?
Mama bellies up to the bar. HAHA.
Just kidding…she can cut a rug but I think she’s stuck back in the 50s…swing dancing is her favourite stuff. All that dipping under and pulling on the other partner, etc.